Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Halloween is one of my favorite time of the year. This is the day when a grown woman (me!) gets to dress up in costume and nobody thinks, "Crazy!" In the kitchen, I luv to bake Halloween treats for my kids and their friends. So here are photographs of all things Halloween.

Last year, I attempted to bake sugar cookies. The cookie dough was made with coconut oil, which made it really hard to roll out. The coconut oil has to have certain texture and consistency or else the dough becomes a glob. I had to roll the dough, put it in the freezer, cut into Halloween shapes, put it back in the freezer before baking. See? Too much work!

I haven't done any better sugar cookies this year. I tried the cookie dough with butter this time. Well, just like last year, the same thing happened with not getting butter cold enough or too cold. Very temperamental, just like coconut oil. Texas hot weather didn't help at all. BUT I luv the cookie cutters I found this year. The skeletoncookiecutter can also be used to make gingerbread man cookies. The only thing I don't like about it is if the cookie dough is not cold enough, the dough will stick to the cookie cutter. Forcing the dough out of the cookie cutter can be a challenge. I'll try making gingerbread men this winter. Maybe it will be cold enough in Texas.

While I was preparing my kids' nighttime snack, I decided to cut the apple slices into Autumn and Halloween shapes. Try using cookie cutters with pear, nectarine, or peach slices. The cookie cutters with pressed patterns are awesome. This is definitely for the fun factor. Who doesn't wanna eat a ghost or a bat?

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Last month, I craved cheesecake, and I wanted to bake one. Since my friend was throwing her 10 year old a birthday party, I thought, "Why not bake one and share with everyone. Then I don't have to eat all of it myself." I did, and everybody at the party luv it. I baked them in mini muffin cups, thinking in advance that they would be easier to eat. No plates. No forks.

﻿While I was browsing through Pinterest this month, I came across several pictures of pumpkin cheesecake. I asked my kids if they wanted to try my homemade pumpkin cheesecake because... well... somebody had to help me eat them. They unanimously said, "YES!"

I searched my cookbooks and on the internet for a pumpkin cheesecake recipe. Not to my surprise, I found one at William-Sonoma. Their version has gingersnaps and pecans in the crust. I didn't have gingersnaps at the time when I was ready to bake. So I decided to just use honey graham crackers. I also skipped the pecans, keeping it simple.﻿

I cut the recipe in half so feel free to double it. After it was baked in a rectangle pan, I cut the cheesecake into Autumn shapes using cookie cutters. Just for the fun factor. The pumpkin cheesecake was creamy and pumpkinny. I like it warm or cold, and my kids luv it too. That was the biggest compliment since they didn't want my regular cheesecake a month ago. Maybe it was the pumpkin in the cheesecake. A great thing... because I now have a go-to pumpkin cheesecake recipe in my recipe collection.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Since Camden couldn't have any of the cow's milk products, I started to look into sheep's milk products. I found manchego sheep's milk cheese at Whole Foods, and I luv it. They don't have that earthy smell like goat cheese. (I gag when I have any goat cheese products.)﻿﻿﻿

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﻿Locating sheep's milk yogurt or milk was a challenge. When I saw Old Chathem Sheephearding Company's sheep's milk yogurt at Whole Foods, I was super excited to give it a try. It tasted good... sour. Good sour in so many way. No sugar added for the plain flavor. I wasn't sure if it was corn free though, but Camden ate it with no reactions. For once, it is the only yogurt that I've found with no gum in it.

Getting my kids to eat sheep's milk yogurt is another challenge. Well, they just don't like any type of yogurts. I tried giving yogurt to my kids with various toppings... with fruits, nuts, chocolate, or cookies. You name it. They would only eat the toppings. Go figure! For the passed three weeks, I had two 6 oz containers of sheep's milk yogurt sitting in my fridge. They both were about to expire. What to do? What to do? Smoothie? YES!

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

I luv cake pops. What a fun idea to put a cake ball on a stick. When Brek wanted to have a LEGO themed birthday party this year, I wanted to make birthday cake pops.

I made cake pops once for Brek's class party. I didn't follow any recipe because... well... I was just playing around.

I started to test recipes about a month before Brek's birthday party. The trouble started right away. My homemade frosting couldn't hold the cake balls together. I could kick myself for not remembering what I did right the first time I made the cake pops. After so many tries, I wanted to go with Plan B: cupcakes. Then I found a Nordic Ware Cake Pop Kit at Target. I gave the pan a test drive. Whoa!!! Talk about less headache.

Let the making of cake pops adventure begins! I decided to work on the LEGO’s Ninjago theme. Since I couldn’t use colorful candy melt, I thought the chocolate around a cake ball would be perfect as the ninja's mask. Another challenge was making sure a cake ball didn't fall apart when I inserted a stick into it. I decided to use a pound cake recipe to make these cake pops. When cake pops were in the fridge, they firmed up really well, which was what I wanted.

In order for these cake pops to have any resemblance of Ninjago, I made their colorful bodies from craft foam sheets. I drew the decorations on the Ninjago’s outfits using markers and fabric pens. Sensei Wu's hat was a cupcake top, and his beard was made from homemade marshmallow.

Using a hand mixer, whip together the butter, sugar, and vanilla extract on a medium speed until light and fluffy, about one minute.

Add the eggs and sour cream. Mix in medium speed for one minute.

Add the flour mixture and mix with spatula until just combine.

Using a medium size cookie scooper, scoop the batter into the prepared cake pop bottom pan. Cake pop top pan has small holes for venting.

Cover the cake pop pan and insert the two locks.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

Let cake balls cool in a pan for 10 minutes then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Trim cake balls if they are not perfectly rounded.

Wash and dry cake pop pan. Use the rest of the batter to make more cake pops if desired.

To make cupcakes, use a large size cookie scooper and scoop the batter into lined cupcake pan. Bake them in a 350°F oven for 15 to 20 minute (or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean).

About Me

I've been cooking and baking extensively due to my son's food intolerence to dairy, chicken eggs, and corn. He outgrew all of his food sensitivity when he was nearly three years old. Since he has G6PD, he also needs to avoid certain foods as much as possible. His big brother still has dairy intolerance. So I decided to run a food blog to share my recipes that I've modified or created on my own. I hope you test out my recipes and have yummilicious good time like my kids and I do. If you have a Facebook account, look for me at Something Sweeter page.